As organizations have become more and more dependent upon computers, intranets and other private computer networks have been developed to internally manage and share information within the organization. An intranet is a network that is typically restricted to specific users, such as employees of an organization, and access to the intranet generally requires some form of authentication, such as a username and password. An intranet may provide access to internal files, emails, and other information stored on an enterprise server. The intranet may also be connected to other networks (e.g., the Internet) to provide access to public content that is not restricted to the users of the intranet.
In a standard implementation, an intranet is embodied in a variety of web pages. In this way, the users can access the intranet using a standard web browser. From a user's standpoint, since web browsers are already commonly used to access the Internet, the learning curve is relatively low for operating the same or a similar web browser to access the intranet. From a developer's standpoint, intranet website development is similar to Internet website development, and the development of Internet-based web pages is well-established. For example, intranet websites may also be developed using HyperText Markup Language (“HTML”), scripting languages such as JAVASCRIPT from SUN MICROSYSTEMS INC. and VIRTUAL BASIC SCRIPTING EDITION (“VBSCRIPT”) from MICROSOFT COPORATION, and other suitable development tools for creating Internet websites. It should be noted that the intranet may also enable access to a variety of other documents besides web pages, such as word processing documents, spreadsheet documents, presentation documents, and the like. Access to these documents may be provided by the web browser or other suitable document viewer.
When one user of the intranet visits a web page or other document, interacting with other users of the intranet about the web page or other document can be challenging if functionality enabling the interaction is not provided by the document viewer (e.g., the web browser) or the document itself (e.g., the web page). In one example, if a user wants to mark a web page for future retrieval, the user may bookmark the web page. When a web page is bookmarked, the web address associated with the web page is saved on a local computer for use by the web browser. However, sharing bookmarks with other users can be difficult and usually requires some manual action by each user. In a “push” model, a user who created the bookmarks is required to actively distribute the bookmarks (e.g., emailing the bookmarks to other users). In a “pull” model, a user wanting to view bookmarks created by other users is required to actively retrieve bookmarks from other users.
In another example, some web pages or other documents provide functionality for associating tags with the web page or other document or adding personal comments regarding the web page or other document. A tag may be a keyword that a user may associate with a web page or other document. The tag may be utilized to categorize web pages or other documents as well as to enable a search for the web page or other document by the keyword. Functionality for associating tags with the web page or other document and commenting on the web page or other document, as well as for sharing those tags and comments with other users of the intranet, may not be provided by the web page or other document. As such, users may not be able to generate or share tags and comments about the web page. Alternatively, users may rely on an external application that is not optimized for sharing such information within the intranet. Even if users are able to generate tags, multiple tags may be generated for the same item, thereby reducing the effectiveness of tagging functionality.
When a web page or other document does not provide interactive functionality, such as functionality for adding bookmarks, tags, and comments about the document, a common approach is to access an external web page or other external application that provides such functionality. For example, a web page displaying an article may be adapted to provide a link to an external and unrelated web page that provides an interface for bookmarking the article, adding tags related to the article, and adding comments about the article. One drawback with this approach is that the interface is located on an external web page. Thus, each time a user wants to enter or view comments about the article, for example, the user may be required to leave the web page containing the article in order to access the web page containing the interface. This creates additional work for the user and also reduces the effectiveness of the interface.
It is with respect to these considerations and others that the disclosure made herein is presented.